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Featherland Bird Cages

The
Absolute Ultimate in Stainless steel Bird and parrot Cages. Featherland
Stainless Steel Bird Cages are The real bird lovers dream bird cage. No Rust, No
Chipping Paint, Easier to clean. These are the REAL stainless bird cages, NOT
that cheap plated chromed cages you see all over the internet claiming to be
stainless steel bird cages. FEATHERLAND BIRD CAGES

Metal Nest Boxes by RBC

Now there is a very updated approach to metal nest box for parrots. We here
at Royal Bird Company have developed one of the more advanced safe metal
breeding nest box. RBC nest boxes are made from a sheet metal alloy called
galvalum, these boxes are light weight but still durable 24 gauge USA Prime
metals, easier to clean, lasts longer.

Beware Of Internet Bird Scammers

BEWARE of scammers on the internet using our pictures
to try and sell you a bird. Always question advertising pictures stating they
are from us, We are the ONLY Royal Bird Company and no one has our
permission to use our pictures or sell birds for us. Make sure you know
who you are sending money to or you may lose your money to one of those
scammers. We have been here same location, same landline phone number for
30 years. Remember This....You Get What You Pay For.. and some cases you get
nothing. No Free Lunch.

The African Grey Parrot

Now Listed as Endangered
Species

UN Wildlife Conference Bans Global
Trade Of Africa's Grey Parrots

CITES Approves Trade Ban For Africa's
Grey Parrots a couple years ago but is now taking and making
an effect across the globe including the
USA
price of this species.

One hundred and eighty-three member
states gathered at the CITES Cop17 meeting in
Johannesburg
and voted decisively in a secret ballot to provide the
greatest protection possible to the endangered African grey
parrot

If you live with a companion African
grey parrot, then you should know that international
commercial trade of wild African grey parrots was just
banned. This decision was made by the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES) members, which concluded their 12-day
Conference of Parties (CoP17) today in Johannesburg, South Africa.
This trade ban is intended to reverse sharp population
declines of wild grey parrots in 14 of their 18 range
countries, caused by

illegal trapping for the pet trade and
by rampant habitat fragmentation and loss of forests.

"During the past 25 years, more than
1.5 million wild African greys have been taken from their
native habitats, making them one of the most traded of all
CITES-listed parrots," said Daniel Ashe, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service Director and head of the U.S. CITES
delegation.Between 1975 and 2013, more than 1.3 million wild
African greys were legally exported from their range states.
In 1981, concerns about the potential impact of
overexploitation on these parrots' populations led to the
species being listed on CITES Appendix II, which allows for
only limited global trade.

But their populations still declined.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) estimates
that many more wild grey parrots -- between 2.1 and 3.2
million -- were captured than officially reported, but
40-60% died due to poor capture and transport practices.
Grey parrots also suffered from a poor quota system; poor
management and regulation of trade; and fraudulent
permitting. Combined, these factors precipitated severe
population declines in wild grey parrots. According to a
2016 study, the

African grey parrot experienced
population declines of 90-99% in Ghana, where the species is
now considered to be "virtually eliminated" means EXTINCT
due to poaching for the pet trade and to habitat loss (ref).
“Grey parrot populations in Ghana have declined catastrophically
and the species is now very rare across the country,” said a
co-author of the study, Professor Nigel Collar from BirdLife
International.

“Illegal trade must surely have
contributed to the post-1990 declines that we report,” said
another of the study's co-authors, Stuart Marsden, a Reader
in Conservation Ecology at ManchesterMetropolitanUniversity."This is
affirmed by the fact that in the years 1991–2012 when trade
was outlawed and Ghana’s
reported exports of grey parrots totaled just 35
individuals, the population in the country still declined by
95%,” Dr. Marsden said.

But African grey parrots are sharply
declining everywhere throughout their range.

"It is extremely rare or locally
extinct in Benin, Burundi,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Kenya,
Rwanda, Tanzania and Togo," said Susan Lieberman, Vice
President of International Policy at the Wildlife
Conservation Society, in a statement.

The proposal to "uplist" these parrots
to Appendix I(endangered speciees and protected) was
submitted by five range states (Gabon, Nigeria,
Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Togo),
and was co-sponsored by Chad,
Senegal, the U.S.A.
and the E.U. After a heated debate where
South Africa,
Cameroon, the D.R.C.,
Brazil, Norway, the U.A.E.,
Bahrain,
Japan, and China strongly advocated for continued trade, a
motion by
Kuwait
resulted in the first ever secret ballot held by CITES. The
secret ballot received 95 votes in support of uplisting grey
parrots, with 35 votes against and 5 abstentions.According
to CITES, there are two formally recognized subspecies of
African grey parrots, the larger erroneouslly called Congo
African grey, Psittacus erithacus erithacus, and the smaller
Timneh African grey, P. e. timneh. Both subspecies are now
listed as Appendix I (endangered species). (Other agencies
have officially classified African grey parrots as ONLY two
distinct species.)

This is referred to as red tail and
timneh. There are no species such as cameroon greys or congo
grey as a real classed species, these are names given by
dealers and sellers to gain a higher price as make their
birds sound more exotic and does not reflect a species but
more in a geo variation label , reference writers and
researchers: as researched and published by Royal Bird
Avicultural Breeding Research Center in eastern USA NC

Globally, African grey parrots are
highly prized pets, often referred to as the "Einsteins" of
the parrot world because of their talking ability and their
intelligence. For example, during a 30-year study,
captive-bred Congo African grey parrot Alex showed that he
could identify 50 different objects and understand
quantities up to six; he could distinguish seven colors and
five shapes, and understand the concepts of "bigger,"
"smaller," "same," "different," "over" and "under" -- and he
was the first animal to ever demonstrate that he
comprehended the concept of "zero."

A CITES Appendix I listing is intended
to improve the welfare and conservation of the dwindling
populations of wild African grey parrots by protecting them
from uncontrolled and illegal trade; and by requiring their
range countries to support efforts to increase protections
for them. But this global uplisting also raises important
policy and paperwork issues associated with keeping and
breeding domestic grey parrots (legally imported, often
generations ago) by zoos, aviculturists and pet owners as
NOW these birds are considered endangered species and will
fall into many regulated fallouts, as many USA states ban
this, housing, keeping breeding and selling endangered
species is regulated by ALL USA states and is enforced by US
Fish Wildlife Services. -- and these are not trivial
concerns considering how popular this parrot is throughout
the USA and world.

It is now underway to monitor, control
and prohibit interstate travels of even domestically USA bred african grey birds. It is
now thought that the breeding of the species in the USA where once common, is now
breeding at an all time low, this partly due to lost
interest in aviculture as the old timers retire and younger
generations have less interest in breeding. We feel that the
species will decline in the USA to an all time low by 2025. This
global uplisting will increase prices worldwide for all
domestically raised birds. Even in countries where the
species is well established like the USA. The time is
coming to an end for cheap birds.

During the 12-day UN conference, 62
proposals were considered to tighten or loosen trade
restrictions for roughly 500 species. The CITES treaty,
signed by 182 countries and by the E.U., protects
approximately 5,600 animal and 30,000 plant species from
over-exploitation due to commercial trade.

So the race is on to keep and reproduce
this species African grey as well many others and save it
from further decline. Many people have ask the question, why
would prices be increasing on a species that was already
banned from being imported into the USA back in 92.

We have seen prices have already
started rising across the USA
and around the world based entirely on status not supply.
The price increases are based on what we in the trade call,
status price increase ,meaning the demand or supply is not
what is driving the price in the USA but more based on the
regulated status as this in fact will bring prices up just
due to the endangered status likened to the scarlet macaw,
as the scarlet macaw went for a wild import $500 dollars in the 80's to
$1500 basically over night, for wild caught imports due to status upgrade, as this
species is one of the most bred species of macaws in the USA
, the scarlet is bred and are in market in much larger numbers than the blue
and gold but due to status and coming government
intervention by permit only sales, the species sells for
more money for no other reason as numbers are at an all time
high and many breeders freely breed them and sell them(for
now), one breeder told me if it were not for the prices
being high he simply would not try to breed them as they
just do not make good pets, but due to ever increasing
prices he will continue and according to him, the market is
flooded with scarlets but prices remain high.

This can be seen on many other
endangered species being sold in the
USA
market. The queen of bavarian conure or golden conure is one
species that we see higher prices based on more of the
regulated status of the bird, as this species cannot be
owned, traded, purchased or shipped into or out of a US
state without permits from US Fish and Wildlife Services and
all movement of the birds being shipped or sold must be
recorded. However the numbers on this endangered species
were once slim, but now it is being reproduced in the USA at
a rate better in numbers than the species could have had in
their natural habitat in brazil, Given these great numbers
being reproduced they have become very common in aviculture
but still demand a very pricey buck. It has been reported
that so many are being bred and reproduced that the breeders
have avery hard time finding them homes, one breeder
mentioned that he sees the paper work and permits required
to own them making them unpoplur for regular pet owners and
that keeps the prices high as only the highly interested and
higher caliber collector customer is willing to go for that.
And we see the opposite effect with the sometimes very
endangered and not so common species like the red fronted
macaw, Though they seem to be very few being bred and even
fewer being kept as pets, almost never seen in pet homes,
this species just does not bring a premium price despite the
endangered status. There just seems less interest in the
species from breeders and the numbers will decline in
captivity even more.(shame)

One must be wary as scammers are
everywhere as well low quality breeders and sellers selling
less than quality and ill health birds. Be vigilant as a
higher price does not always mean better, but low prices are
the first RED flag of less than quality.or maybe its too
good to be true.Why would a auto dealer sell a corvette for
few thousands when the real prices are in the 50 and 70
thousands of dollars range USD and the demand is always more
than the supply.

We here at Royal Bird Company Avicultural Breeding
Research Center,we have what we think is a very productive
and thorough breeding research program on the grey including
red tail and timneh and several mutation program, We have
researched,and bred the species for over 30 years and have
published at least 20 articles on the breeding and husbandry
of the species, One of the most shared article is "Why Call
It Congo" this published article can be read on our website.
www.royalbirdcompany.com. We are most known for having the
worlds largest program on the now declining species Yellow
Naped Amazon and several uncommon subspecies,
and including the very rare blue mutation. But we have
several programs continuous going here at the center,
including red variate mutation african greys, the yellow
naped amazons and mutations, extreme colored magna double
yellow heads and breeding and research of mealy amazons. We
have collected massive amounts of data on the yellow naped
breeding and research program over 30 years, We have now,
more than 55,000 pages of data, older data is on hand
written and hard copy and later since 2000 on digital. We
continue with our work for many years to come in hopes that
some of it may help the birds and their owners near and far.
Thank you.
www.royalbirdcompany.com